Project Management

Project Management

The partners(except our new working life partner) were involved in the FINECVET project funded by the Finnish National Board of Education. In that project, the partners first explored the implementation of ECVET in vocational music education. In the FINECVET project learning outcomes were described and the assessment was done only in relation to Finnish students who worked in the UK.

As the coordinator Kainuu Vocational College takes responsibility for the administration and Project management of Musicreates.All partner organizations will choose a person who is responsible for the project in their organization and also a financial administrator.Written agreements will be drawn up when the project has been approved.

The project coordinator will ensure that the project follows the rules and requirements of the National Agency CIMO as the financier of the project.KAO guides all the partners regarding financial management

The management and administration aim to make sure that:

·Musicreatesproject will be implemented according to its objectives and schedule

·economic issues and reporting of the project are implemented according to all the rules and requirements

·all the partners have all time the needed information

·all partners follow the project implementation plan and do all the tasks mentioned in the application and told by the coordinator.

In the first transnational meeting coordinator will give partners detailed instructions for local project management including: eligible costs, timesheets, schedules for financials reports and instructions to archive documents. This helps project managers in each organization to manage the project and run it efficiently.

Each partner will be in charge of organizing local activities and the program of transnational meetings when they are hosting.Each partner will delegate a contact person to maintain the links with European partners. Each partner will develop their own instruments for monitoring locally the work of the project's team. All of the partners will ensure direct involvement of students in all stages of monitoring and evaluating.

Partner dialogue will be guaranteed through different types of public communication: e-mail, SMS, telephone, virtual platform (Dropbox or other cloud service) on the web, online meetings. The schedule of activities will be maintained by the coordinating organization. The involved schools will use every chance to inform the public and present the results regularly.

During the project, there will be 5 project meetings over a period of 2 years. That means that there will be a project meeting roughly every 6 months. During each meeting, the progress of the project in terms of results and project finances is discussed and presented. If needed, partners can approach coordinator and each other in all matters dealing the substance or management of the project.

All partners must have a separate ledger for the project expenses progress will be tracked through regular online discussions and in addition hold project management meetings.

Proposed management meeting dates are:

• Autumn (September) 2015: Kokkola

• Spring (mid-March) 2016: Londonderry

• Autumn (late September) 2016: Glasgow

• Spring (February) 2017: Tallinn

• Spring (April) 2017: Kajaani

We feel the strengths of the project and project group are:

·good project consortium

·experience in project management

·-clear objectives of the project

·committed project partners

·good expertise in the project theme

·launching a new method to develop international activities in VET

We see potential project risks as:

·Disagreement about project finances;

·Disagreements about project activities;

·Lack of available staff to carry out the project

·Major organizational or personal changes in partner organizations

·Allocation of time resources

We see strategies to offset these risks as:

·Partners already know each other and all have the same ideas about the objectives